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Abkhazia Presidential Candidate Sergei Shamba Goes Online

Three candidates are competing this week for a presidential post in the breakaway Georgian region of Abkhazia. The Central Election Commission predicts 70% turnout on the ballot that will be held on August 26, 2011. According to BBC:

At least 130,000 people were registered to vote but, our correspondent says, an estimated 40,000 ethnic Georgians living in the region were mostly prevented from voting because they do not have Abkhaz passports.

The three candidates are: acting President Aleksandr Ankvab, who was Bagapsh’s vice president, Prime Minister Sergei Shamba, and former Vice President and opposition leader Raul Khadzhimba. All of them have their own vision of Abkhazia’s future, however the difference is not big. A month before the election candidates signed a formal pledge to ensure the ballot is free and fair, however according to RFE/RL the campaign turned ugly.

The oldest candidate, Sergei Shamba, born in 1951, turned to social media in order to attract online community. Shamba sent out his first tweet on August 2 (in Russian) saying: “My goal – Abkhazia to be one of the economic leaders in the Black Sea Basin.”

Sergei Shamba has a personal website and a Facebook page as well. 60 people Like the page and as on twitter, all the posts are in Russian.

The question arises: Who is Shamba targeting with his social media presence? Figures indicate that there are not many followers (29 on Twitter and 60 on Facebook). Exact number of internet penetration in Abkhazia is unknown but it is very low. There are very few internet cafes in urban areas and only one in Sukhumi that provides Wi-Fi access.

With two days left till the election, heat rises in the de facto republic that is recognized independent by Russia, Nicaragua, Venezuela, Nauru and Vanuatu. Let’s wait for the results and see what is going to happen in the aftermath.

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2 comments

“Despise”: The most common sickness of Georgians. Your comments reminded me another examples:

“Guram Odishaira: We Georgians told the Abkhaz that they were a minority and they shouldn’t forget that they only made up 17% of the population.(*) One famous Georgian poet wrote that you could actually fit all the Abkhaz into two football stadiums. It was outrageous!” http://vimeo.com/8826939

“there are only 80,000 Abkhazians, which means that we can easily and completely destroy the genetic stock of their nation by killing 15,000 of their youth. And we are perfectly capable of doing this.” Giorgi Khaindrava, Le Monde Diplomatique, April 1993.

For Georgians, Abkhazians are nothing and they don’t deserve anything. Georgian chauvinism is a great problem and Georgians must solve this problem.